22. It doesn't end with trans people...

 

In several other countries we can see populism taking hold, because of social and economic disillusionment, which is exploited to recruit people. And as was evident in 1930s Germany and we can witness in some parts of the United States, opportunists try to harness supporters by identifying scapegoats and minorities to vilify.

Here in the UK we can see news media and other groups trying to turn the clock back, and deploying the dog whistles and catch cries of sexual and social conservatism - with trans people facing some of the worst contempt. But the playbook rarely stops there with one group.

Immigrants are also becoming targets of mob vigilante action via social media. Right-wing political parties threaten to cast non-British nationals out of their homes. Ten councils across England have been banned from flying the Pride flag. Library staff in Essex have been told not to promote events like Pride and Black History Month, and in Warwickshire the policing of library books has begun if they are too 'woke' (a political slogan to smear people with socially liberal views).

We see the direction of things in some parts of the USA, where 'anti-woke' propaganda has gone even further. Inclusion is slipping backwards and true to the playbook, division is used to politicise ordinary people's lives. Minorities get 'othered' for being 'woke' or 'alien to us' and ordinary LBGT people get framed as perverts and predators. Some Christian nationalists seek the return of women to domestic roles with husbands as their 'heads'. Gay sex is branded sin by fundamentalists. And it's happening in the UK as well.

Because other political parties are scared of losing ground to their right-wing rivals, they seem too ready to let things slip as the country is fuelled by hate speech and descends toward further hatred. The assault on the very reality of trans people is a canary in the coalmine, an early sign of a deteriorating society, appealing to some of the worst instincts of human nature. It may begin with trans people, but that doesn't mean it will end there. Money is channelled to help continue a roll-back of inclusive values.